Database design for Wild Wood Apartments management system

¶ … Stakeholders

There are a number of stakeholders in this particular scenario. First and foremost are the apartment managers, who will use the database to upload information regarding maintenance, repair, and leasing information. Moreover, there are the lease holders, janitorial employees, and outside repair companies that are contracted to do work on the apartments when needed. Then there are also the internal Wild Wood Apartments stakeholders, including the administrative employees who will handle the information once it is uploaded by the apartment managers and then anyone in the IT department that will be working on creating and implementing the database.

Interview Questions

Question

Time Allotted

What is the best thing about our system?

All

minutes

What are the problems in the current forms used for reporting maintenance, repair, or leasing events?

All

minutes

Walk me through the process of submitting a report through the current system.

Managers, IT Department, Administrative Employees

10 minutes

4. What is your role in the process?

All

10 minutes

5. How are outside contractors contacted when needed?

Managers, IT Department, Administrative Employees

10 minutes

6. How are repair and maintenance events approved by Wild Wood Apartments?

Managers, IT Department, Administrative Employees, Janitorial Employees

10 minutes

Questionnaire

Questions

Possible Answers

1. Can you use Microsoft Excel?

Managers, IT Department, Administrative Employees, Janitorial Employees

Yes / No

2. Can you access Google Sheets?

Managers, IT Department, Administrative Employees, Janitorial Employees

Yes / No

3. Do you have access to the Internet?

Managers, IT Department, Administrative Employees, Janitorial Employees

Yes / No

4. Rate your familiarity with spreadsheet programs

Managers, IT Department, Administrative Employees, Janitorial Employees

1 (none) 2 (little) 3 (some) 4 (use often) 5 (mastery)

5. Would you be willing to enter in reports online immediately as they occur?

Managers, IT Department, Administrative Employees, Janitorial Employees

Yes / No

6. Would you like notifications for changes in the database that require your attention?

Managers, IT Department, Administrative Employees, Janitorial Employees

Yes / No

Job Shadow Report

There are a number of interesting things that can be seen by examining the job shadow report. First, Joe had to manually enter in each of the renter's names and apartment numbers and payments. This takes up too much time and becomes an inconvenience, especially when dealing with tenants that have long-term leases. Clearly, a system where the renter's name, apartment number and payment are stored would make the process easier. This way, Joe can simply enter that a payment for that particular renter was received, making the process much quicker as it is only a fraction of the data entry compared to the work seen in the job shadowing example. Additionally, Joe had to keep track of the grace periods himself. It would be beneficial to have a notification from the database for each day that the rent has not been submitted as paid to the manager so he or she can contact the client accordingly. When the five day grace period hits, it would also be beneficial to have a notification sent to Wild Wood Apartments home office in order get the processing for the $100 late fee in motion. The database should also have records for how many times and what months a renter paid during and after the grace period of five days.